Tuesday, July 15, 2008

When I asked (fine: yelled, screamed, begged, pleaded, bribed) for a Nintendo for Christmas when I was 10 or 11 (I don't remember which) they came to me on Christmas Eve to say they were very sorry, but they couldn't find a Nintendo anywhere. It was the hot toy that year.

Things haven't changed much in 20 years.

They were very gentle about it, and disappointed, and I did my best to not sulk too much about it.

I think.

When Christmas morning rolled around we took turns opening presents, and I was the official doler-outer of the gifts. Some were torn open immediately, and others (like the big box I wanted my dad to open first because I wanted to see what my mom had bought him) were set aside until later in favour of the smaller gifts. As I doled, and opened, and doled, and opened, I couldn't help but notice that I hadn't opened in a while.

I was done.

My sister still had some to open, but the rest of my Christmas morning was spent passing presents around trying not to look absolutely crushed. Not only did I not get a Nintendo, but I also hadn't received as many presents as my little sister.

Spoiled much? It's all about the quantity, baby, not the quality.

Finally the morning ended, and I passed that big present to my dad to open. He saw how disappointed I was about the whole process and let me open it for him, just to give me something fun to do.

You know where this is going, right? Because most of you are parents, and you know what parents do.

I ripped the paper off, revealing a brand new Nintendo Entertainment System: Action Set (the one with the gun and the Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt combo).

They had driven to Ottawa (an hour away) and combed the city looking for one, and finally found one at JC Penny. It was on layaway for someone else who never bothered to pick it up, so on Christmas Eve they were able to buy it themselves and bring it home for me.

They thought it would be funny or something to watch me sulk all morning.

It was funny. Right?

You'd think I would have learned something from that. Something apart from the great parenting truth that "Lying is just love in disguise".

But I didn't. I didn't learn.

The next Christmas when I begged for a Power Glove (Nintendo's first attempt at a Wii-type controller), my mom was very sorry to tell me that they couldn't find one anywhere.

Yeah. I fell for it. Again.

And within hours I was knocking out Bald Bull and King Hippo with my Power Glove. The display copy from the mall store that they were finally able to sell at the last minute to the woman who was waiting so patiently (or threatening them with death).

Tell me I'm not the only one to fall for stuff like this. And that I'm not the only one who is totally going to do it to their own kids.

There really is something incredibly loving about these stories. Even though they are mostly about tricking a kid into being a jerk on Christmas morning.

Once on my birthday, my parents told me that they were not able to buy me a present for some reason. I was such a jerk, I yelled and screamed and swore(!), so much that it made my dad very upset. He just took me to the car and showed me the gift that they had bought me, about 15 books. And I loved books, so that was like the best present ever for me. But the birthday was ruined anyway.

But you know what? In my case, they learned their lesson, and never ever did such a thing to me!!

One year my mother thought it would be funny to hide the receipt to my present inside a 4' box filled with packing peanuts. I'm digging through all the little styrofoam pellets looking for something tangible and it turned out to be a piece of paper. For a glass fronted cabinet that I was drooling over in the store. Yes I was an adult, and she still got me. Took me quite a while before I realized there really wasn't anything in the box. I'm so sad!

Ottawa, huh? So that "colour" thing wasn't so much of a "slip" as a "reversion," then.

I was an only child (not a googlable fact), and so I tended to get what I wanted without any whining. I'd just ask, they'd buy. They were just pleased not to have to think too hard about it.

And, ironically, the year we got our Atari 2600, it was *really* for my Dad. Honestly, it was. The fact that I whiled away endless summer days playing Pitfall and that horrid Indiana Jones game was just coincidence.

Unfortunately (or fortunately?) I have no "happy" trickery stories...we were poor, so there were no nintendos, BUT on a funnier note. My husband and I (then botfriend) bought that nintendo for ourselves when we were older and we only just sold it at a yard sale 4 years ago. I TOTALLY MISS THAT GAME! Super Mario Bros was my favorite.

heehee My FIL did something similar to my husband when he was about 8 or so. They had ordered some Pay-Per-View wrestling thing for him and he was soooo excited about it. A few minutes before it was supposed to start, his dad secretly disconnected the cable behind the tv so the tv went all fuzzy. Dan was flipping, and then his dad tried to 'fix' it- he would bang a hammer on the wall and touch the cable to the connector for a second so it turned back on- Dan would get all excited! Then he'd pull it away. He did this for a while and Dan was having a fit, even suggesting that they go see if the neighbors ordered it. MEAN!!! lol

Most of my Christmas stories are depressing and don't involve any secret hidden great gifts. As a result, I buy my daughter whatever she asks for. She would never believe it if I tried to pretend I was empty handed on Xmas or bdays. However, when I was a kid, on year I gave my brother a training bra for Xmas. He was a little chubby and we teased him that he had boobs. He didn't really but you know how siblings can be. It was pink and lacy, and he was ticked off big time.

I haven't done it to the kids yet because I haven't figured out how to clue them in to the fact that I am indeed as evil as my own mother.

However (!!) I have already done this to Hotty Hubby. Yes...it works on spouses too. Last year, he wanted a PS2 for Christmas (or a Wii, but he doesn't like to dream too big) and I swore up and down I couldn't find one. He fell for it. Just like you.

When I was nine, I wanted nothing more than a 10-speed bicycle. My parents told me that I wasn't old enough to have a big kid bike, so I didn't even dare to hope that I would get one. Christmas morning, we opened all of the presents and then my dad sent us outside to go play with one of my sister's toys. There on the front porch was my shiny new red 10-speed. Happy doesn't even begin to describe me that day. I absolutely plan to fake my kids out, that's part of growing up!

Oh, man - my parents did this to me with a PlayStation, the first console I ever owned, and Spyro the Dragon, which was the game I wanted. They kept on making, 'Well, you probably won't get one, we don't approve, too expensive' noises in the leadup, so I was braced for not getting one on Christmas day - although still a bit sad. But then they pulled out two gifts that hadn't been under the tree but which had been hidden in the top of the wardrobe, one small, one big. I opened the small one first - it was the Spyro game. My eyes lit up, and I ripped into the next one - the console.

Ah, happy memories! And I'm *totally* doing that to my own kids, one day. :)

My sister's 25, she still does the doling out & counting thing. And come on, Christmas is all about deception, if you think about it. Elves decorating, Santa visiting, not buying that thing or it being sold out... all part of the deal

Due to his singing, guitar playing and resemblance to Elvis I, um, actually thought my dad was Elvis until I was mmmmm say 7 or 8 (and at that point, the real Elvis had been dead for years.....OR WAS HE??!). Sadly nobody corrected this mis-perception until I had a total meltdown with an older neighborhood kid over the veracity of my claim.

I LOVE gifts, and am a notorious gift counter. I like to save the biggest gift for last, and always imagine it holds the treasure I've wanted most. My husband does this trick to me, and completely believes he's saving the best for last. Alas, I've opened up a lot of boxes that contain the soundtrack to Star Wars: Episode 4, and men's shaving kits.

One year my parents bought us skis for Christmas but rather than wrap them, they wrapped like 6 small random boxes. And after opening boxes of sprinkler heads, box of old (but clean) socks and a few other random things, they brought out the skis and we were much less confused.

I'd like to think I figure out that they didn't actually buy me a sprinkler head, but honestly, I've always been pretty gullible.

The old Red Rider BB Gun stunt, eh? I love that trick. I mean, show of love. ;-P

What I do to my kids is let them beg and beg for some expensive toy, and then they don't get it, and then they really don't get it because we really can't afford it. That trick stinks most of all, I think.

My parents tried that when I begged for a CD player for abut 7 months. They screwed up though. They hid the CD player and forgot that there was a wrapped CD under the tree, and it was like the third present I opened. I knew immediately that they had stashed a CD player somewhere, and they weren't very good liars. :)

I used to find my hidden Christmas presents and break into them because my rabid curiosity Just. Couldn't. Take. It. Then I would re-wrap them, badly. It was totally obvious and really started to piss my mom off.

One year I snuck into a pair of gray ankle boots that, in the mid-1980s, were H-O-T, HOT. I tried them on, planned outfits around them, and wrapped them back up.

My mom figured it out and, to teach me a lesson, the Queen of the Punishment-Fits-the-Crime disciplinary technique used the same box but took the boots out and instead wrapped an 8x10 picture of herself.

When I opened the present on Christmas morning I was all set to act surprised. But I didn't need to act becuase I was REALLY frickin' surprised when I opened the package and got a lousy picture of my mom for Christmas.

Waiting for a doll that you saved up your allowance for to come in the mail- and it NEVER did. One day while looking through mother's purse for candy- I cam across the envelope with the info for the doll that I had ordered- and NO MONEY. She took the money out, never sent away for my doll and told me that it may have been lost in the mail!

Yeah, I have a philosophical problem with laying a person low with disappointment then to suddenly 'rescue' them from the sadness they causes. It seems like jerking someone around.

And worse, what if, as you say, in your disappointment you HAD acted like a jerk--wouldn't you then feel badly when you DO get what you want? Wouldn't that taint the pleasure of the gift?

It seems unfair to do that to a child.

Not to mention, there's the troubling notion that it's reinforcing an idea of 'hanging in' with something long after it's clear that it's over. Because of the idea of the miraculous fix if one just waits long enough.

By the way my name is Debora and I found you by way of aunt becky. And I'm getting anxious that my blogroll is increasing because the number of books I'm reading is decreasing proportionately. But damn, I read one good post, read a good response, follow the link, and then another blog blooms on my blogroll. I wish I could be paid to read blogs.